Rapid heating and cooling in the Selective Laser Melting (SLM) additive manufacturing process generates large amounts of tensile residual stresses in the component. These stresses lead to part distortions and poor product performance. In most cases, distortions become more significant after cutting the part from the build tray and removing support structures. In this study, a complex topology optimized Gimbal Mount was considered for physical printing and finite element analysis of the print process. Th component was printed using Ti6Al4V material on an SLM machine and measurement points were taken on its outer profile. This data was compared with original geometry and simulation results. A good agreement was found between simulation and experimental results which was helpful in part development and establishing the technology.
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